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Hida's STR faq

Lately there have been a LOT of posts on the forum about Strength builds. I've been answering a lot of these posts and decided I just put what I know/think into one post.

This FAQ will cover the beginning levels, all the way to the top.

ALL of this is my opinion after playing TWG for 3 years. I'll try and be as comprehensive as I can covering the different Strength builds I've seen in game as well as comment on what I think is the best Strength build in the game.

I'm going to write this FAQ once. Mods: PLEASE sticky this. PLZ. I think that this FAQ will help a lot of people out. And like I said, I'm only doing it once. It takes a lot of time for someone with a low attention span to sit down and type. Thnx.

***Low Levels. Lvl.1-10***

The beginning of the game is quite possibly the most important time to build up your "identity" in game. What I mean is by leveling your stats and planning ahead to pick out the stats you need to unlock certain moves to TM or just have is key.

Your moveset is the base skeleton of how well you'll do later on in the game. Plan your moveset out wisely and think about what moves you want. Refer to the moves table and make a list of the moves you like in each position and what stats you'll need to get those moves.

IMO the best thing to do at the beginning of the game is level your Strength stat to the point of being able to have what you think are the best move or moves to TM.

ONLY level your Strength stat.

It doesn't matter if you lose matches now. In fact, losing matches isn't a bad thing at all. You gain moves executions, XP, and FE, regardless of you how you do in a match. A match is a match, is a match.

Those are all the highest damage moves you can unlock with the Strength stat alone. There are a lot of other amazing moves as well, but you ONLY need Strength for those. And at the beginning of the game that's pretty key.

DO NOT spend FE on leveling moves. Only spend FE on leveling moves if you want to have a TM move after you've unlocked it. Save your FE for later in the game.

For your first TM I would choose the strongest possible move that you like. The harder you can hit, the faster your opponent will fall.

Let's also talk about your beginning Finisher. Create a finisher with a 335-425 Adrenaline cost and set it to a position you think you might hit easily. I prefer a Finisher in Bent or Groggy for my "end game" finisher. However, having a Finisher set to Stunned will lower the amount of adrenaline needed and fire off/execute if you can get your opponent to the desired position.

Here are two example Direct Damage Finishers:

Fin1: Bent/Groggy, 15:50 dmg, AB 5, BB 1 = AD cost 425

Fin2: Stunned/Grounded, 25:50 dmg, AB 5, BB1 = AD cost 235

Both of those Finishers look weak now, but in time they'll become monsters. After you level them to say level 25-30 you should have your stats in order and will be able to increase the damage and/or change the position of your Finisher. My one point of advice is to set your Finisher and your TM to combo off of each other. Nothing hurts more than 2 high damage moves one right after the other. Also: I would ONLY go with 1 Finisher and 1 TM, or 1-2 of each move. Your Finishers and TM's only fire off 3x per match total. So if you have 3 Finishers and/or 3 TM's they'll be competing to fire off. In the long run this will make it harder for you to raise the levels of these moves (unless you have TP to burn and buy a Sparring Partner).

While we're at it lets pick out a nice Taunt too. I went for a 10sec Taunt and I think that the 10sec Taunt is better than a 5sec Taunt in that you gain more Stamina/Health in the long run. The one thing you can't do with a Taunt is reset it, so pick one or the other and stick with the rest of the game.

Now get your moveset planned out and get some matches in. Start slow and enjoy the ride.

***Mid Levels. Lvl. 10-15***

So you have your moveset underway. The first part of the pyramid is coming together and you have a foundation to build on now. Let's talk about other stats that might be helpful!

Besides the Strength stat the Speed stat is going to be highly useful to a Strength build. Frenzied Urge and Lightness are the two best stats in the game, other than Bleed.

Frenzied Urge is going to give you some extra Attacks Allowed, and Lightness is going to give you Stamina Reducer to make your moves hit harder and allow you to last longer in a match (Stamina). As a Strength both of these stats will help you hit more often, and hit harder than your opponent. IMO, this is what the Strength class was/is meant to do.

Next I would consider Resistance as the next priority stat, with Technique rounding out the last stat of importance. This is ALL my opinion. Others may argue this logic.

With the Resistance stat you'll want to go with Pacification and Tireless. Now at the beginning of the game some points in Thick Skin may be nice to bolster your HP so that you don't lose to a single well placed Finisher, but in the long run Thick Skin is only good for unlocking moves. Pacification give you Attacks Denied (the opposite of Frezied Urge), and Tireless boosts your overall Stamina. Both of these are stats will play into how well you dominate your opponent. The more moves you can effectively block is good. A good amount of Pacification can also stop your opponents attack string and give you the opportunity to attack them. Tireless increases your Stamina, which in turn allows you to do more damage, as well as resist the effects of Submission Bonus (Stamina drain), and to a certain degree Bleed.

And last but not least we have the Technique stat. Feint, Block, and Escape Artist are the 3 stats we're going to talk about. Feint is the "Yin" to the Strength stat Berserker. Feint is going to help you with a probable chance of derailing/stopping your opponents attack string. Feint works with Pacification to a degree in giving you a better chance of striking back. There's a lot of discussion about how Feint works and we could dedicate a whole thread to it, SO let's stick with knowing that Feint is a good stat to have. Most people like to have an amount of Feint close to what their Berserker stats is. Next we have Block. We can argue that Block is better than Dodge and vice versa FOREVER. But. . . since the Speed stat is being used for other things we'll go with Block for our defensive stat. Block is good, 'nuff said. It makes people not hit you. Last but not least we have Escape Artist. Escape Artist helps resist submission moves ie: not get held by the move. Having a certain amount of Escape Artist is good but there has been no real proof that having a lot of Escape Artist is good. You'll always find a Tech that has WAY more Submission Bonus than you have Escape Artist, and the Tech will always end up winning in that department. Later on in the game having a good level of the Technique stat is good, as there are certain moves you can unlock.

So by now you have your stats under control and your build is starting to take shape. At this point in the game you might have joined a Federation. AT's and Entrances are going to start taking a place in your mind. Well, AT's and Entrances work hand in hand. Entrances give you more XP to spend on AT's. So having Entrances to get you AT's is a good thing.

The 3 AT's I would key in on are Power Blow (DDI), Increased Attack (Attack Bonus), and Increased Block. The more of those stats you have the better, at any point in the game. Any stat can be raised by buying AT's: except Berserker and Feint.

If you have a stat you want to raise but you don't have the stat points to raise it (and you don't need the stat points from your base stat to unlock a move), buy the AT equivalent.

***More Mid.Levels. Lvl.15-25***

So. Your moveset should be finished by now. You should have all the moves you want. Maybe it's time to look at your Finisher and tweak it a little bit. If you do reset your Finisher think about what stats you have first. Do you have enough Rage or Inner Rage to create a Finisher with a bigger impact? My best piece of advice would be to create a finisher that costs double to triple what your current costs in adrenaline. So if you had a Finisher with a 300 Adrenaline cost, something in the way of 750-900 Adrenaline cost might work out. Remember, you'll have some executions built up from your old finisher so it won't look as weak as it looks, after you've leveled it up.

IMO having a Finisher with a decent amount of Minimum Damage is a good idea. This gives your Finisher the ability to more damage in the long run, as your opponents Damage Reduction is coming into play in the higher levels.

Let's talk more about AT's now. Your AT's are going to start to determine how well you do. Having AT's will help you win Level Title belts and do better in general. Having Entrances of course will give you more XP to buy those AT levels, so spend your hard earned FE on Entrances. Entrances also help how well you do in Federation matches as well, so support your Federation and hopefully get a better pay out after each match/show you're in by buying more Entrances.

We talked about reseting your Finisher just a bit ago, and we just talked about Entrances as well. Well, if you have a lot of TP/Tournament Points to spend on FE lucrative tournaments another way to get a HUGE amount of FE is by doing a full Stat Reset. You can buy these with TP. You can check out how much FE you'll get form a Stat Reset on the front page on S1 and S2. Wait until you have 1mil FE in payback before you reset. 1mil FE. It's a lot of FE that you can spend on Entrances. Now if you feel like you've messed up on your moveset in any way you can fix it and get the moves you really want. You can also spend your FE on SA's if you want to do better in Tag Team Matches or challenge for Global Titles. The nice thing about AT's and SA's is that you can reset either for 20 TP's. This way you can play around with your build a little. The 1 bad thing about SA's is that sometimes they don't fire off, and you won't get as much XP per match if your FE is in SA's rather than Entrances.

End Game? Big words right? Well, after Lvl25 there's not much left. Your moveset should be fully complete now, your Finisher should be set too. All that's left is raising your AT levels and raising your Entrances. AT wise you should have been building on Power Blow, Increased Attack, and Increased Block. Now is a good time to add in some Increased Resistance (Stamina), and maybe some Power Body (HP) and Damage Reduction (DDR). Adding Increased Initiative will help too, giving you the chance to jump on your opponent and swing the match momentum in your favor as well.

Having more Stamina is golden, as it will help you hit for more damage with more consistency. Power Body will help you soak up your opponents TM/Finisher damage and Damage Reduction will soften the blow just a little more.

It took me a long time to figure out that Stamina and DDR we're actually good things. They'll help you last just long enough in a match to turn the tide so that you can hit your own Finisher and end the match.

What's left to do but get as many matches as possible and put your FE into Entrances, and XP into AT's. Maybe you've joined a Federation and are role playing too, that's awesome. Some of the best times I've had with TWG have been because of the Federation I'm in (APW GAMBATTE!!!)

That's about it on talking about really building your character up. Now let's have some fun and talk about directions you can take your Strength!

IMO the best build a Strength can have is a Bleed build. By combining high damage moves with the Bleed stat you not only run the chance of beating your opponent into submission by KO, but you also wear down they're Stamina with overpowering DDI. This is what's Strengths are made for!

The Bleed stat is the ONLY stat in the game that doesn't have a counter stat. The only combo I can think of that defends against Bleed is a combo Damage Reduction and Stamina. That's it. Most of the best builds in the game (right now) have a side of Bleed or are full Bleed builds.

What else is open to Strengths? The Bleed/Sub Strength can be done but it takes a LOT of XP to make it run well. You'll be adding in AT's for Mortal Submission (SDI) and Increased Submission (SB). You'll have the ability to really drain your opponents Stamina through sub moves like Bear Hug, Torture Rack, Fujiwara Armbar, and Camel Clutch, while also bleeding the out at the same time. Killer X and Conkster both had good Bleed/Sub builds but have both gone full Bleed after tiring of the Bleed/Sub build.

Last but not least we have the DAMN!AGE build (lolz). If you remember the legendary wrestler Ron Simmons you'll get that pun.

The goal here is to only have the most high damage moves possible, plain and simple. Foley/Onslaught had this build and when he did he had the best build in the game. A STRENGTH, it's hard to believe. Not a Balanced or Tech build. Foley was ahead of the game with overwhelming DDI back then. This is a simple build that can do wonders at the beginning of the game I might add. Just hit your opponent as hard as possible and they're sure to fall to the mat.

Now, there might be a couple of more Strength builds out there but I've never seen them or heard about them. PM me if you can think of one and I'll add it to the list.

I really hope this FAQ is helpful for new players and old players alike.

Big BIG thanks to my Fed mates for helping me figure out how to play the game.

Thanks to Killer X for giving me advice and hope as a Strength early on in the game. Every time he had a fed match I wanted to see how he'd do against some of the best builds in the game.

Thanks to Antonio Minotauro Nogueira for his advice on planning out my moveset. Ant may not have held my hand figuring out what moves to get, but he helped by placing the severity of really planning out your moveset so that you can truly optimize your build.

BIG HUGE thanks to Raisti, The Excellence of Execution, BigMage, and Crimson Rebel for sending me matches while I'm not online. Without these guys my build would be nowhere.

And Thanks to all of the fed mates I've ever had: TWA and APW. There are WAY too many names to list, just know I'm not forgetting anyone.

Cheers and GAMBATTE!!!

***New Stuff!!!***

A LOT has changed in the game in the last couple of years. Here's a couple of newer things I felt needed to be added to the faq.

When creating your End Game fin try and keep your Damage values as close to even as possible. This will ensure that you do the max amount of damage possible. So if you create a fin early according to my faq, think about reseting it later on. Either that or create your fin with an even Min/Max damage value. It'll help, believe me.
Also, an AMAZING position to set your suffered position for your fin is You Are Running. It costs 20 AG to set it there, but it's a great place because not many running moves do that much damage. If you set your suffered position to Stunned you're in a world of trouble! Stunned moves level quickly, and can do tons of damage.

Power Body! Yes, Power Body. My 3rd favorite AT in the game (honestly). I run a lot of HP, and it helps out loads. I personally run my Power Blow and Power Body at the same level, ie: 50/50. I found that once I got past say lvl50 Power Body I saw a difference in matches. I think that HP has more of an effect on your matches than Stamina does. Stamina in my mind is highly overrated.
Also, the two most important AT's in the game are Increased Attack, and Increased Block/Dodge. You can never ever ever have enough offense and defense. AB/Block or Dodge is my first tier set of AT's, followed by Power Body and Power Blow 2nd, and Stamina 3rd.
Extra AT's work well when heavily invested into are Esc.Sub, Init, and Bleed.